Public sector employees strike in Gaza Strip over unpaid salaries

Public sector employees in the Gaza Strip went on strike Monday over unpaid salaries, amid a dispute between the two major Palestinian factions. All government institutions closed their doors in the morning as the union of public employees called for the second strike in a month, AFP said. The union said the strike is necessary as staff have only received 40 percent of their salaries for five months. The two Palestinian factions, Islamist Hamas and the secular Fatah, signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was supposed to see Hamas hand back control of Gaza a decade after seizing the enclave. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian government was meant to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants employed by Hamas until a final solution could be found. The factions have failed to implement the agreement, with the two sides trading blame over responsibility.